Incoherency
by Chronos Keeper
Summary: Vladimir Lem visits Vincent Gognitti under a set of unusual circumstances.


I never saw the world

as I did now,

bathed in a light so

green

that I thought I was going to

cry

from pain.

Smells are even green. I took in a deep breath of the dank corridor- rotting carpet and wood, cheap fabric softener wafting up from below.  
He came out of his office, one hand still hooked on the doorjamb. His face was

like a crinkled sheet of printer paper, white and lines, and drawn. The world around me spun, and I felt my feet wheel in a circle before the watery image settled. Whoever's throwing rocks into the pool, stop. You're making me nauseous. I hated him with a repulsion: the type that makes you scream with rage and need, makes you break all barriers.

He was closer than I thought, as I ran into his chest. It was bony- one of his collarbones

stuck out at me, mocking me. 'I'm skinny. What're ya gonna do about it? Feed me?"

Social and economic commentary by anatomy.

His chest gleamed white against the dirty yellow of the wall, against the dull blue of his jacket. Heaving as he took a breath and sinking as he spoke or exhaled, he moved against the wallleaned against it. His bones stuck out

of his skin and clothes, more on one side than another.

Confusing.

I wanted to lick his collarbone. Better yet, I wanted to bite it.

My back hurt. I had stooped for too long. I straightened, trying to keep my head from wobbling like it was on a stick. A pike.

He was looking behind him, saying something.  
Stop talking to them, look at me.

I grabbed his face; could actually feel my forehead pull into a scowl.  
I shook my head: no, no.  
No, Mr. Gognitti. It will be just you and me. For just ten minutes.

His crinkled paper face smoothed, making it look blank.I could barely hear his words, his breath tinged with green, "What the fuck do you want?"  
Want? Want? Chew on your face, maybe?

I barely knew that my body had taken a hand away from his face, touched a finger of mine to my lips.

Shhhh, Mr. Gognitti. Don't talk. You don't look good to chew when you talk.

He drew into the wall.  
What? Into the wall? No, you can't leave yet!

I grabbed his shoulders and yanked him foward, not letting the wall have him. I looked at the wall, staring at it hard. Don't take away my prize. I won him.

His head wobbled and snapped. Euphoria! What a bad thing to do to a person, making their body fling about.

I couldn't understand him, just knew he yelled. The sounds screamed off the walls into my ears, green frozen mist on the air.

Shut, up, Gognitti.

I slapped him. His head snapped again. The floor tried to take him this time, as he almost fell over. Over, over, this isn't over. _I'll be back_...

He was so light as I pulled him up, made his head wobble and snap again.

I bit his lip. It was soft, and there was no green- all soft red flesh, quiet and dark. Not the virulent, screaming green that

rippled like a stone in a pool all around me.

This time he did stop moving. That was good- there would have been more red if he moved when my teeth were still on his lip. His breath touched my mouth and nose. Hot and light. I breathed in counterpoint to him

for an instant.

And I drew back, my movements green ripples in the air. Our breath streamed green through the air, touching and merging and evaporating. Water and air.

His face was twitching and curling, like a rabid dog 's. I stared at him in fascination, reaching up to touch the steady tick against his pale eye. The eyelid was a combination of his breath and flesh- warm and light and hot.

A dull pounding of excitement in my chest,

I took his shoulders. My lips pulled back into a smile, I stared at him, body leaned back. Our hips shared heat, his bones poking through the fabric ofhis slacks, touching the denim of my jeans.

His arms blurred as they rose, and struck mine, his face now not paper, but a wax mask poured into the shape of a demon's... like a noh-mask.

I backed away, feeling nothing. He advanced, like the shor coming to meet the tide.

His mouth was moving, his pale skin wrapped in a haze of green.

The stairs were below me, and I took them backwards one at a time

My eyes fixed

on his the entire way

down.


End file.
